The five hottest IT jobs over the next five years

By Brittany Ballenstedt

February 5, 2013

It’s hard to predict the future and what tech skills will be the most in-demand going forward, particularly when it comes to the ever-changing technology landscape. But a new special report by Dice.com predicts five tech jobs that will be hot over the next five years.

Dice’s predictions are based on four key trends in IT: the cloud, mobility, smart computing and bring your own device, or BYOD. And with IT becoming a more integral part in an overall business strategy, IT workers will need to have more than just tech skills to be successful going forward.

“It used to be the business trends drove changes in technology,” the report states. “Nowadays, technology trends are driving changes in business. And that switch is going to impact what employers expect from you and the kinds of skills you’ll need to develop over the next few years.”

So what tech jobs will be hot over the next five years?

Project integrators – or “uber project managers” – who can select cloud services to get projects out the door.

Dual Security Developers who can create software security features and strategies for protecting physical resources like datacenters.

Cloud Administrators – the successors to systems administrators – who can integrate cloud services into a framework that works for their organization.

Virtual Connection Engineers who can integrate the urls for social media, mobie information, cloud data and other services into a single, cohesive stream.

Natural Language Speech Scientists who will design and develop voice-navigated systems like Apple’s Siri in order to keep up with user expectations.

Overall, technology jobs are going to grow in the coming years. Between now and 2020, employment in the computer and information technology sector is projected to increase by 22 percent, greater than the overall economy’s 14 percent projected growth, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Dice reports.